The Kiko Calendar auction closed yestarday. The auction opened 10 days ago for $50,000 and closed for $258,100. It has been fun to watch Kiko’s wild, highly-publicized exit. I don’t know what Paul Graham’s initial investment was, but it couldn’t have been much considering how much he pays the average kids he picks up for startup school. Paul’s investments come with a valuation. I wonder what Kiko’s initial valuation was when Paul initially invested. Here’s a guess:

As explained in the YCombinator FAQ, Paul typically invest $6,000n (where n = number of founders). This investment usually gets him close to 5% of the company. In the case of Kiko, n = 2. Therefore, Paul’s post-investment valuation was probably around $240,000 (which is $6,000 * 2 * 20). That’s almost exactly the amount of the final auction price.

Paul’s initial valuation obviously includes optimism and potential which no longer exists, plus it was made in a marketplace where Google Calendar didn’t exist… so it is an impressive feat for Kiko to keep it’s value. I wonder if the purchaser bought Kiko for the code or for the pagerank of 7… both are of significant value.

I wish the Kiko guys the best of luck on their next startup, as Dharmesh expects that they will double-down.